Here is a thriller that portrays the heavy ramifications of a “justified” crime with a steady, grounded rhythm that gives power to every sin committed.

Directing is acclaimed indie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt, who also co-wrote the script with frequent collaborator Jonathan Raymond. The thriller genre is one that suits her controlled tempo very well, especially when combined with her ability to get underneath the skin of her character’s and let them squirm under the consequences of their actions and (in this case) the danger of their ideology.

The main players in Night Moves are a trio of radical environmental activists - Josh (Jesse Eisenberg), Dena (Dakota Fanning) and Harmon (Peter Sarsgaard) – who are fed up with the inaction of their movement and choose to strike a blow against those Earth destroying capitalists by blowing up a hydroelectric dam, stepping over that line into terrorism.

Of course such a crime comes with a price, as the weight of a guilty conscience and stirring paranoia leads to other decisions that chillingly portrays what happens when righteousness begat death.

Again, it comes back to Reichardt’s deft handle on pace and tempo (she also takes on editing duties), and if the best thrillers are all about tension than Night Moves is a shining representation of the genre with tightly wound, sweating bullets inducing scenes featured throughout.

Great too are the performances. Jesse Eisenberg proves that even without chatty dialogue he can command the screen with his twitchy, jittery face exposing the conflicted emotional and ideological battles within. Dakota Fanning lives up to the promise of her young prolific career as the rich kid trying to make her mark in the ultimate act of rebellion. Then there’s Peter Sarsgaard, the man of a 1000 seedy characters who once again proves that to be typecast doesn’t make him any less effective.

Much like her characters, Reichardt has openly professed her support to a left wing, anti-corporation, pro-environment ideology. The Oregon area upon which the film is set (and every Reichardt feature before that) has become a home away from home for the filmmaker, and within are communities of working farmers, activists and radicals who stay off the grid and view a hydroelectric dam as an affront to creation.

Reichardt could have easily made a thriller where right-wing capitalists are the only enemy. Yet that would be too easy and much less interesting. No, Night Moves is about how fanaticism not only leads to self-righteousness, but to immorality at its most lethal, and no ideology is above that.